English Spelling in the Seventeenth Century
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. English Spelling in the Seventeenth Century: A study of the nature of standardisation as seen through the MS and Printed versions of the Duke of Newcastle's "A New Method ...". (Volume One of Two Volumes) by Margaret J—M SOnmez A Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of English and Linguistics The University of Durham 1993 0 - 4 FEB 1994 English Spelling in the Seventeenth Century: A study of standardisation as seen through the MS and printed versions of the Duke of Newcastle's "A New Method Margaret J-M SOnmez PhD thesis, 1993 Abstract This thesis investigates 17th century English spelling from the points of view of variation and standardisation. Following a survey of both contemporary and present-day commentaries on Early Modern English spelling, the linguistic nature and social contexts of the standardisation of written English are examined. In accordance with Milroy 1992's research, it is found that this process may usefully be studied as a form of language change. Unlike this earlier study, however, it is postulated that the standardisation of spelling itself (rather than of speech) will show patterns in variation that are similar to those found in the spoken language where change is in progress. The comparative analysis of the spellings of manuscript and printed versions of the first Duke of Newcastle's English book on Horsemanship shows variation at a number of different textual and linguistic levels, conforming to sociolinguistic the- ories of variation patterning in accordance with formality. This is the first attempt to examine such spelling variation extensively, using methods other than phoneme— grapheme mapping. The analyses provide specific and numerically—substantiated information about 17th century spelling. They also show that the process of spelling standardisation demonstrates the patterns of structured variation that have been associated by sociolinguists with change towards an acknowledged pres- tige. Three appendices provide a complete word list of all spellings found in manu- script and printed texts, with numerical occurrences, a list of uncanonical verbal endings found in the texts, and a full, diplomatic transcription of the manuscripts used in the analyses. Copyright ©1993 by Margaret J—M SOnmez The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without Margaret J—M SOnmez's prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. For my father Contents Acknowledgements 3 Introduction 7 1 Background to English Spelling in the 17th Century 11 1.1 20th Century Studies & Descriptions of EModE Spelling . 11 1.1.1 General Histories of the Language and Histories of Spelling 11 1.1.2 Histories of Pronunciation: Wyld 19 1.1.3 Descriptive Bibliography and Editorial Commentary 20 1.2 EModE Studies and Descriptions of Spelling 23 1.2.1 Spelling Reform 23 1.2.2 Spelling Books and Dictionaries 25 1.3 Standardisation & the Social Background to 17th c. Spelling 34 1.3.1 What is Spelling Standardisation? 34 1.3.2 The Social Background: Class 42 1.3.3 The Social Background: Education 43 1.3.4 Printing 49 1.4 Summary 59 2 Present—Day Studies of English Spelling 60 2.1 Two Aspects of Spelling Studies: Production and Reception 60 2.2 Studies of Entire Spelling Systems 62 2.3 Historical Studies and Editorial Processes 65 2.3.1 Editorial Treatment of Non—Standardised Features 68 2.3.2 Different Treatment of EModE MS and Print 69 2.4 Educational and Cognitive Studies 74 2.5 Theoretical Linguistics 76 2.6 Analytic Approaches of this Thesis Contextualised 77 3 Selection and Description of Materials 80 3.0.1 Sources 80 3.1 Selection 82 3.2 Description 83 3.2.1 The Manuscripts 84 1 3.2.2 The Printed Book 90 3.2.3 The Writer: The Duke of Newcastle (1592-1676) 96 3.2.4 The Printer: Thomas Milbourn(e) 99 4 Methodology 101 4.1 Preparation of Material 103 4.2 Order of Presentation 104 4.3 The Tables 104 4.3.1 Computation 104 4.3.2 Presentation and Content 105 4.3.3 Calculations 106 4.4 Referring to the Texts 106 5 Non—Traditional Features of Spelling 107 5.1 Definition of Terms 107 5.1.1 Multivalent Graphic Features in MS and Print 111 5.2 Analysis of Multivalent Graphic Features in the Texts. 113 5.2.1 Non—Possessive Apostrophe 113 5.2.2 Superscript Dash or Macron 114 5.2.3 Capitalisation Within Sentences 116 5.2.4 Non—Alphabetic Forms Referring to Words 120 5.2.5 Abbreviations 121 5.2.6 Spaces Between Words: Word Division and Hyphenation 122 5.2.7 Possessive Apostrophe 130 5.2.8 Dash to Fill Space or as a Flourish 130 5.2.9 Asterisk and Other Special Devices. 130 5.2.10 Rules 131 5.2.11 Paragraphing, General Layout 131 5.2.12 Capitals at the Beginning of Sentences. 131 5.3 Summary 131 6 The Spellings of Morphemes and False—Morphemes 133 6.1 Prefixes 135 6.1.1 a1— 135 6.1.2 be— 138 6.1.3 corn— 138 11 6.1.4 de— 139 6.1.5 dis— 141 6.1.6 en— 141 6.1.7 ex— 86 extra 142 6.1.8 in— 144 6.1.9 out— 144 6.2 Suffices 146 6.2.1 —age 146 6.2.2 —al 147 6.2.3 —ance and —ence 149 6.2.4 —ant & —ent 150 6.2.5 —ar, —er and —or 152 6.2.6 —ate 154 6.2.7 —able and —ible 155 6.2.8 —dom 156 6.2.9 —ed 156 6.2.10 Comparative —er 160 6.2.11 —en 160 6.2.12 —ful 161 6.2.13 —hood 162 6.2.14 —ic 162 6.2.15 —ify 162 6.2.16 —ing 164 6.2.17 —ise and —ize 166 6.2.18 —ish 167 6.2.19 —ity 168 6.2.20 —ive 170 6.2.21 —less 170 6.2.22 —ly 170 6.2.23 —ment 173 6.2.24 —ness 173 6.2.25 —our 174 6.2.26 —ous 175 6.2.27 —s 177 111 6.2.28 —ship 185 6.2.29 Superlative —(e)st 185 6.2.30 —sion & —tion 187 6.2.31 —ward 188 6.2.32 Word—Final —y 189 6.2.33 Conclusions 191 7 Grapheme Variation and Alternation 199 7.1 Spellings of PresE Unstressed Vowels 199 7.2 Word— and Morpheme—Final (e) 200 7.2.1 Final (e) 201 7.2.2 Medial (e) 203 7.3 Consonant Doubling 206 7.3.1 Base—to—Suffix Consonant Doubling 208 7.3.2 Non—Suffixed Word—Final Consonant Doubling 211 7.3.3 Word (Morpheme) Medial Consonant Doubling 212 7.3.4 Possible Homographs 215 7.4 Vowel Doubling 216 7.4.1 Morpheme—Medial Double Vowels 216 7.4.2 Morpheme—Final Double Vowels 219 7.5 Graph or Digraph Alternation 220 7.5.1 c/k/ck Alternation 221 7.5.2 c/s Alternation 223 7.5.3 ch/tch Alternation 224 7.5.4 g/j Alternation 225 7.5.5 th/d Alternation 226 7.5.6 thrthorn' Alternation 227 7.5.7 ti/ci/si Alternation 227 7.5.8 (s)/(f) 228 7.5.9 (i)/(j) 228 7.5.10 (u)/(v) 228 7.5.11 Loss of Medial Vowels in Trisyllabic Words 229 7.5.12 Loss of Initial Segment 229 7.5.13 ihr 230 7.5.14 u/w Alternation 236 iv 7.5.15 i/e Alternation 242 7.5.16 Alternations Between (ea), (ee), (ei) and (ie) 243 7.5.17 er/ar Alternation 245 7.5.18 re/er Alternation 247 7.6 PresE Single Vowels in Stressed Position 251 7.7 Learned, Etymological and Miscellaneous Other Spellings 254 7.7.1 Weak Forms 256 7.7.2 Other Spelling Features 257 8 Results 260 8.1 Substantive Findings 260 8.1.1 Variation Within and Between the Texts 265 8.1.2 Difference Between Spellings of the Texts and of PresE . 269 8.2 Qualitative Interpretations 271 8.2.1 Features Not Traditionally Considered to Pertain to Spelling 271 8.2.2 Morphological Level 272 8.2.3 Phonological Level 274 8.3 General Observations 276 9 Conclusion 279 A Complete Word List with Definitions 281 B Uncanonical Verbal Inflexions 413 Selected Bibliography 424 C Transcriptions of PwV21 and PwV22 436 LIST OF FIGURES Fig. la. Inspiration 13 Fig. lb. Diffusion 14 Fig. lc (i) Variation and Alteration 16 Fig. lc (ii) Variation and Alteration 16 Fig lc (iii) Variation and Alteration 18 Fig. 1 (d): Spelling variation explicitly mentioned by EModE sources 32 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Population in England and in London in the EModE Period 43 Table 5.1: All instances of non—possessive apostrophe . ... 114 Table 5.2: All instances of macron 114 Table 5.3 Non—sentence—initial capitalisation 119 Table 5.4: Non—alphabetic forms of words. 121 Table 5.5: Abbreviations and Contractions 121 Table 5.6 (a): Words showing unetymological word division 125 Table 5.6 (b): Where PresE has single words but the texts show divided or hyphenated forms 126 Table 5.7 (a) Words which are hyphenated in PresE 129 Table 6.1 (a): Morphemic al— 135 Table 6.1 (b): non—morphemic al— 136 Table 6.2 (a): Summary of main variable in Table 6.2 (b): where PresE has —mm— 138 Table 6.2 (b): Morphemic and non—morphemic (polysyllabic) COM- 138 Table 6.3 (a): Summary of all spellings of initial de— 140 Table 6.3 (b): All (di) spellings of initial de— 140 Table 6.4: Spellings of PresE initial en— 141 Table 6.5: Words spelt with (c) or a vowel following (ex) in 1667 and PresE 142 Table 6.6: PresE (in—) 144 vii Table 6.7: All instances of PresE (out(—)) 144 Table 6.8: All PresE —(age(—)) 146 Table 6.9 (a): All spellings of PresE (-al(—)) 147 Table 6.9 (b): Spellings of 'continually' 148 Table 6.10 (a): PresE —ance 149 Table 6.10 (b): PresE —ence 149 Table 6.11 (a): PresE —ant 150 Table 6.11 (b): PresE —ent 152 Table 6.12 (a): PresE —ar 152 Table 6.12 (b): PresE —or 154 Table 6.13: All PresE syllabic —ate 154 Table 6.14: PresE —dom 156 Table 6.15 (a): All —ed words 156 Table 6.15 (b): Simple Past 158 Table 6.15 (c): Participial and Adjectival —ed 159 Table 6.16 (a): Morphemic —en 160 Table 6.16 (b): non—morphemic syllabic —en 161 Table 6.17: Spellings of PresE —ful(—) 161 Table 6.18: Spellings of PresE —ic 162 Table 6.19: Spellings of PresE —ify 162 Table